4 April 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
North Corner Residential Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to a maximum of 16 people. The service provides support to older people who require support with some aspects of their daily living. At the time of our inspection there were 8 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The systems and processes followed by the provider failed to identify that care and treatment was unsafe. We identified several safeguarding incidents that had not been reported to the local authority or to the CQC. There was no oversight of safeguarding incidents by the provider.
Risks were not managed safely, or fully identified. Where risks were identified there was not always guidance to inform staff how to support people safely and consistently. Environmental risks were not managed safely, for example, there had been no recent fire risk assessment and there were no regular fire safety checks. The home was not clean and tidy and needed general maintenance throughout. Improvements were needed to ensure medicines were managed safely. Recruitment procedures were not robust and did not ensure staff were suitable to work at the home.
People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. The policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.
A quality assurance system had previously been in place, but there had been no recent audits or oversight by the provider for a number of months. Records were not completed accurately and there was an apparent lack of commitment by the staff to improve and develop the home. Although the provider was aware of some of the concerns we identified, action had not been taken in a timely way to address these.
We observed staff engaging with people and supporting them with kindness. People approached staff freely. People told us the staff were kind and relatives spoke highly of the staff team.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 01 September 2017).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from Good to Inadequate based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for North Corner Residential Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding, fit and proper persons employed, need for consent, premises and equipment, good governance and notifications of other incidents.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Special Measures:
The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.
If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.